The condom saga continues, as community groups have returned as many as 70,000 of the D.C.-branded condoms provided by the health department. Despite assuring the public that the condoms, which bear the slogan “Coming Together to Stop HIV in D.C.”, are safe and effective, the city eventually gave in and agreed to phase them out, agreeing that they were now so mistrusted as to no longer be effective, de facto. The uproar began when the Post published a story saying demand for the condoms had gone way down in recent months as people reported that the integrity of their packaging was questionable.

The company that produces Trojan brand condoms agreed to donate 350,000 condoms to the city’s HIV/AIDS outreach prevention program in the aftermath of the uproar, and the health department agreed it would “phase out” and replace the old condoms with only brand-name alternatives. They did not, however issue a recall on the old condoms. The community organizations who returned 70,000 of them did so on their own. The new condoms should be distributed into the community in the next few days.

In addition to the 70,000 sent back in the past few days, the department’s HIV/AIDS Administration still had 350,000 condoms that were never distributed, leaving a total of around 420,000 condoms sitting someplace that may or may not be effective, but that nobody wants. What do you think the city should do with them? If they’re not destroyed, perhaps they could be put to some other use.